If you can sit with your pain, listen to your pain and respect your pain—in time you will move through your pain.
~ Bryant McGil
Do you know any middle-aged person that doesn’t have any health concerns? If yes, have you wondered why?
In a conversation recently, I realized with gratitude that I had become one of these people.
No more migraines or headaches.
No sinus or respiratory infections.
No more thyroid issues.
Much to my surprise, I realized that even that nagging low-grade pain I occasionally felt on my hip was gone.
The migraines disappeared over a decade ago. I do believe magnesium sufficiency, mitigating stress and eating more mindfully helped.
Sinus infections and respiratory ailments have not been an issue for approaching two years.
My thyroid has been functioning optimally without intervention since 2007. Had I consented to endocrinology directives, it would have been removed or radiated, and I would be on medication for life.
But what about the hip pain? It had lingered for over 20 years. The onset was being hit by a car while running a marathon. But for other reasons, it had persisted. Not exactly sure when it stopped. I became curious.
What changed to cause the lingering pain to disappear?
No, I did not do physiotherapy.
No, I did not numb the pain with substances.
No, I did not change my exercise routines.
No, I did not alter my diet in any significant way.
Maybe, I just changed my mind.
Maybe, moving to a remote cottage location made habit change easier to accomplish. Minimal opportunities to socialize reduced triggers and provided the time to sit still, reflect, meditate and let go of unresolved emotional baggage.
Maybe, I finally overcame fear about dis-ease and embraced the power of the mind to deliver all the healing chemicals needed to thrive. By letting go of the fear, I released its imprint on my body.
What initially prompted me to recognize I needed to change my mind to change my body?
Failure gave me strength. Pain was my motivation.
~ Michael Jordan
Ten years ago, after an epic fail in a community effort to change outdated health-related policy, a wise person told me that in the future, I would do less and accomplish more. (It was the thyroid issue that motivated me to advocate on behalf of concerned citizens for clean food and drink.) To start, he recommended I read books by Joe Dispenza.
At 23 years of age, Dr Dispenza, a chiropractor, experienced severe damage to his spinal cord when hit by a fast-moving SUV and catapulted from his bike during a triathlon. Four experts agreed that he would likely end up paralyzed unless he had immediate surgery to install a Harrington rod.
Knowing the potential lifetime complications of such a procedure and believing in the power of the mind to heal, he opted out. In ten weeks, through visualization, self-hypnosis and meditation, he completely healed himself. Since then, using his formula, he has helped tens of thousands do the same.
The first Joe Dispenza book I read was You Are the Placebo. My explanation of placebo is an inert pill, act to influence, or fake medical procedure that leads one to believe healing or another positive outcome is forthcoming. Having failed to achieve lasting results with clients when focusing on the physical realm (diet and exercise) and behaviour change, I was inspired to learn more.
I looked to the HeartMath Institute, where ongoing research on mind-body healing was in progress. The mind/body split, pervasive in medicine today, ignores evidence that thoughts and emotions cause physical symptoms.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is an objective measure of the status of our nervous system and our state of being. Through the power of mindful heart centred breathing, we can activate the parasympathetic branch (rest, digest, and recover pathways) of the autonomic nervous system, and respond better to any trigger, be it emotional, physical or chemical.
Then in 2017, having seen an obituary for Dr John E Sarno, one of the most forward-thinking medical doctors in America, I was inspired to read his books. Dr Sarno began practising as a medical doctor in the 1950s. He was also a highly regarded professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the New York School of Medicine.
Over time it became apparent to Dr Sarno that the invasive procedures, addictive pain medications and even the complementary and alternative modalities (acupuncture, chiropractic adjustment, physiotherapy) yielded only temporary symptom relief. He would fix one thing, and in time the same patient would return with chronic pain elsewhere, or with another health concern.
He became aware of the mind-body connection to dis-ease, coining the term Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS). Sometimes the body creates pain to distract one from dealing with painful emotions.
It is not an accident that opioids not only numb physical pain, but emotional pain - same pathways. Tension becomes embodied, reducing blood flow and healing to any vulnerable tissue. Dr Sarno began helping people recognize that suppressed emotions were the underlying cause of their health afflictions. Through the power of a change in thought and the release of the embodied feeling thousands of his patients, including celebrities, experienced miraculous recoveries.
Our most beautiful dreams are born from our most unpleasant nightmares.
~ Matshona Dhliwayo
I recognize that Western medicine has saved countless lives. However, under current circumstances, the first paragraph of the introduction to Dr Sarno’s 2007 book, The Divided Mind, is very insightful.
Health care in America is in a state of crisis. Certain segments of American medicine have been transformed into a dysfunctional nightmare of irresponsible practices, dangerous procedures, bureaucratic regulations, and skyrocketing costs. Instead of healing people, the broken health care system is prolonging people’s suffering in too many cases. Instead of preventing epidemics, it is generating them.
On that note, perhaps the demise of the current health care system is challenging us to embrace a more holistic and empowering mind-body approach to physical and mental well-being.
Sadly, the need to numb pain has become epidemic during the current health care crisis, and we have lost countless to opioid addiction. There are safer and more sustainable ways to release the pain. And sometimes, it starts with introspection and a change of mind.
The pain will disappear when its hidden message is revealed
I am fully aware that not everyone has the luxury of time to be introspective. At certain stages of life, numbing symptoms to continue to function becomes necessary. In the short term, it can improve the quality of life. It is unlikely, however, to reduce the progression of the health affliction.
But have faith. Through the power of the mind, you too can create health no matter how debilitated your body has become. When we discover the hidden message in the body's cry for help, miracles become possible.
Love this. Seriously so true.